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newsletter March 2013 Volume 25

March Music

For many in Michigan the month of March can seem like winter is holding onto its grip just a few weeks too long. We long for the scents and sights of spring. Usually in vain! Outside there may still be snow, or perhaps, even worse, slush on the ground, but inside Varner there is most definitely a flowering of sorts. All through the winter semester our music ensembles have been hard at work, and it is in March and April that we can all enjoy the results of those labors. Please join us for some of these March offerings and decide for yourself which are musical flowers: beautiful to hear, and which are fruit: food for the spirit. The opening concert of the month will be a guest artist concert on Sunday, March 3 at 3 p.m. when the renowned Gould Piano Trio will play with clarinetist Robert Plane as part of their U.S. tour. No chamber music lover will want to miss this performance, and if you are a chamber music novice this would be an excellent choice for your first experience of the genre.

In the OU Music, Theatre and Dance community the big news in March is always the announcement of the MaTilDa Award winners. This year, the Distinguished Community Service Award went to the Judd Family EndowedArts and Humanities Fund for its support of arts and humanities programs that are accessible and enrich the community. David Douglass and EllenHargis won the Alumni Achievement in Music Award, Richard Riehle the Alumni Achievement in Theatre Award, and Rodney Brown the Alumni Achievement in Dance Award. David Douglass and Ellen Hargis are renowned in the world of early music. Richard Riehle enjoys a distinguished career as an actor on stage and in film and television. Rodney Brown is a dance faculty member at The Ohio State University. All are hoping to attend the MaTilDa Awards dinner on Monday, April 15 at the Royal Park Hotel in Rochester. For complete details of the event, including how to purchase tickets, please visit our website here. Read more about our student winners in next month's Prism.Read more.

Catching Up With Our California Alumni

Recently we decided to catch up with some of our California alumni, many of whom stay in contact with each other, forming a kind of informal Oakland family west. Here are the first two of their stories. PhilMetzler graduated from OU in 2001 with a B.A. in Music Composition. At the time he was working in a Media Play store, but a friend who was already performing in Los Angeles encouraged him to move west, and just a few months after completing his degree he did. His employer gave him a transfer and he arrived in California as the retail manager of a Sam Goody store. But his real ambition was always a career in music. Today Phil has that career. He plays keyboard in the band Just OffTurner, which is well known in the city, playing such venues as the Viper Room and the House of Blues. They have provided soundtracks for shows on ABC, MTV, E! and Oxygen and appeared on both MTV and VH1.

Carrie LaFerle Gergely, who graduated from OU with a B.A. in theatre in 2003, is the office manager and school coordinator of the famed Groundlings Theatre and School on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. The Goundlings' shows almost always sell out and their list of alumni, which includes such luminaries as Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell and Maya Rudolph, is formidable. Their improv and sketch writing classes are in high demand. A recent refurbishment has left the organization ready to celebrate its 40th anniversary in style. Paint has been applied and new classrooms opened. Of course, none of this would be possible if the Groundlings were not leaving the stage to loud applause every night. But that is not the whole story. "Lots of things go into making a theatre successful," says Carrie Gergely. "People who understand that and have the necessary skills are a rare breed and can thrive in this business."